Death Your Way: Caring for Your Own Dead, workshops and discussion event in Brunswick

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Post Date: October 10, 2016 8:33 pmUpdated: October 11, 2016 12:46 pm

Alison Rector | BDN

Alison Rector | BDN

Alison Rector | BDN

Alison Rector | BDN

Home funeral educator and woodworker Chuck Lakin in a handmade coffin

How can we care for our own friends and family at end of life and at death?
How do we get better at initiating the conversation with those we want to plan with us?
How do we talk to a funeral provider about our wishes and get only those services we want?
How can
we safely and legally care for our own dead at home?

Join members of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maine on Saturday, November 5, 2016, from 9:00am to 2:00pm at Pejepscot Terrace in Brunswick for a day of hands-on workshops and lively discussion. This is a free public event, open to all.
Learn how to build a simple wooden coffin. Take a look at a handmade burial shroud sewn by a Maine shroud-maker. Experienced funeral guides from Last Things and the National Home Funeral Alliance will demonstrate caring for a body at home during and after death, including Jewish rituals of washing and preparing a body. A panel discussion will feature community members from mid-coast Maine who meet regularly to discuss their choices for end-of-life and after-death care, supporting each other. Learn about how to complete the paperwork when a death occurs, and how to best document your own wishes for end of life.
Keynote speaker Julie Lanoie RN, MA, from New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education and Advocacy will speak about family-directed funerals and informed choice in funeral planning. Lanoie is a registered nurse, counselor, hospice bereavement coordinator and therapeutic respite provider in the Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire. She received her home funeral training with Final Passages, and is producing a film about home funerals titled Mount Washington Valley.
Yes, it’s possible to care for our own dead in a safe and legal way. Please join the discussion; all are welcome. After all, talking about death isn’t what kills you.

The Maine Public radio program Maine Calling will discuss these topics of home funeral on the Nov. 3 program at 1pm. Guests on the program will include volunteers from FCA Maine, Last Things, and the National Home Funeral Alliance.
For more information, call Alison Rector at 843-441-7046. To contact FCA Maine email info@fcamaine.net or voice mail 207-558-2246 Website: www.fcamaine.net .